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Dietary diversity in the Atacama desert during the Late intermediate period of northern Chile
- Source :
- Quaternary Science Reviews. 214:54-67
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2019.
-
Abstract
- The Pacific Ocean that flanks the hyperarid Atacama Desert of Northern Chile is one of the richest biomass producers around the world. Thus, it is considered a key factor for the subsistence of prehistoric societies (including mixed-economy groups), that inhabited its coastal ecosystems as well as the neighboring inland areas. This study assesses the Arica Culture groups' diet (Late Intermediate Period; 1000–1530 CE), through stable isotope (on bone-collagen; δ13C and δ15N) and dental pathology data. Seventy-seven (n = 77) individuals from two inland (LLU54 and AZ8) and one coastal (CAM8) archaeological sites were studied. Results show an important, but lower than predicted by earlier studies, contribution of marine resources in the diet of all three groups. Dental pathologies and stable isotopes indicate that these groups' diet varied in correlation with their distance to the Pacific Ocean as well as group and individual preferences. The results challenge the idea that Arica Culture groups depended heavily on marine resources for their subsistence. In contrast, this study shows both that the Arica Culture groups’ diet was diverse, and that the terrestrial resources consumed were mostly contributed by C3/CAM plants instead of maize.
- Subjects :
- Marine conservation
010506 paleontology
Archeology
Global and Planetary Change
Biomass (ecology)
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
δ13C
Ecology
Subsistence agriculture
Geology
δ15N
01 natural sciences
Prehistory
Geography
parasitic diseases
Period (geology)
Ecosystem
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 02773791
- Volume :
- 214
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........760f3aaa79a8b08fe38b29cffdd6aa35